Friday, January 26th, 2007
I really wasn’t looking forward to this morning’s flight lesson. It was about 7 degrees outside…the coldest day of the year so far. As I lay there in my warm bed, I could only imagine what my 15 minute pre-flight was going to be like.
There I was, fingertips twanging with pain, checking over the airplane. I had to stop three times to run inside to warm up. Things were not looking good. Yigal was out there with the tractor and airplane preheater. We had things going fine, but when I tried to start the airplane, I must’ve primed it too many times…or something like that. I really blame the arctic air though. We could not get that engine to start. Yigal tried it and the battery wouldn’t give anymore. My lesson was dead.
I sat in the plane and Yigal tried to hand prop the engine. No go. We decided to go over to Rick’s Runway Cafe for some coffee instead. Oh well, next lesson I will get to go to Columbia County (1B1). Â
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Friday, December 29th, 2006
Hours – 19.4Â
Ahhh, what a beautiful morning. The birds were chirping sweet melodies, the sun was settling on my silky smooth skin and the air was calm…WHAT? The air was calm? FINALLY! Yes, that’s right. I checked the weather last night and knew today would be the day I have been waiting for through many torturous weeks. Actually, I haven’t even flown in a few weeks due to weather. I was starting to think Mother Nature didn’t like me anymore. I’m not sure why…I always recycle.
Anyway, I got to the airport at 8AM. This is a little later than usual for me. Yigal was waiting in the parking lot. I know EXACTLY what he was thinking. “Hey, look. Here comes my best, brightest and not to mention, my favorite student.”
I walked over to the Cessna 172 and did the fingertip numbing preflight inspection. It was a little chilly. I went back inside and met Yigal. He was putting on his heavy coat and had his radio in his hand. All set, ready to go.
We hopped in the plane and taxied to runway 3. We took off and did a few landings. On the third takeoff, at about 1000FT, Yigal pulled the throttle back and told me I had a dead engine. He caught me by surprise, but showed me that it is quite possible to make a 180 degree turn and land back at the airport at that altitude. You just need to react very quickly. I like the fact that he enjoys teaching the tough stuff to teach. This is the stuff no one likes to learn, but could save your life one day.
After I landed that time, we taxied back to the beginning of the runway. He told me I was ready to solo and that he was gonna hop out. I kept thinking of all the articles and blog posts I have read on the topic. Was I supposed to be nervous? Excited? I am not sure what I was feeling. I think I may have been a little nervous right when he was getting ready to exit the airplane, but the minute he closed the door, I know for a fact that I was ready to roll. I mean I was really excited. I just adore that fact that a few months ago, during a conversation with my father, I was almost kidding when I said I was going to learn how to fly, and now I was sitting next to a runway, alone in a running airplane. An airplane that would be in the air in about 30 seconds. I have to hand it to these instructors. I mean, the way they get their students to do the things they do is pretty incredible. This is a pretty challenging skill to learn.
I made my radio call and pulled onto the runway center line. There was so much space on the seat next to me…kind of weird. I set the heading indicator and pushed the throttle in all the way. 60KTS…the tires came off the ground. I did notice that the airplane seemed lighter. I have read that you can’t really feel a difference anymore, with the higher horsepower airplanes, but I certainly did. I climbed at 70KTS and really noticed the lighter and more maneuverable airborne vessel (you like that?). I made my trip around the pattern and came in for final approach. Everything seemed right. It’s amazing that it really didn’t seem any different that any other time I have ever done this. I came in for my landing and it turned out to be very smooth. I taxied back to where Yigal was standing and he waved me on. I had two more to do. I pulled over for a quick mag check and took off again. This time, on my final approach, I was pretty high. I cut the throttle and lost some altitude. When I saw the VASI lights turn one red, one white, I gave it some throttle. I maintained my approach at 65KTS and came in for another nice landing. Taxied back and took off for another. Landed that one and everything was great. I let out a sigh of relief and headed towards Yigal to pick him up. Over the radio, he told me to do one more and meet him back at the office. Gladly. Now I was having fun. This time, when I came in for my landing, I floated a little bit. All those hours, about a month ago, trying to correct my ballooning paid off. I leveled out and just kept pulling back on the yoke. Smooth.
We talked for a little while back at the office. I have to say that I was beaming. I asked Yigal how he felt. “What do you mean?” he asked. I said, “How do you feel having a new member in the club?” He laughed and shook my hand.
Of course, now I can’t wait for my next lesson on Sunday. I feel good.
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Friday, December 22nd, 2006
Can you believe it has taken this long to get a photo of me with an airplane? Oh well. Yigal took this the other day for us to use on his website (that is still in the works).
If you want, you can take a look at his site here.
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Wednesday, October 4th, 2006
This lesson was awesome. I got to fly the plane I really wanted to fly…a Cessna 172. This is a larger airplane than the Piper Cherokee I usually fly. There is more interior room and it has a high-wing configuration as compared to the low wing. The Cherokee had more power due to the engine modifications, so which is better is really up to the pilot.
We did more touch and goes today. The weather was good for it, so there were 3 other planes in the pattern. I did six take offs and landings. The touch and go teaches you a few important things…take offs, climbs, patterns, descent, turns, landings, runway management and communications. It also teaches you how to manage the cockpit with a passenger. Yigal likes to throw a lot at you when you are practicing. He was trying to distract me while I was flying to show me what is going to happen when I start flying with friends. He tried, but didn’t succeed. I am like an arrow heading towards its target (haha).
We had a lot of fun during this lesson. I like to keep things light and laugh. It helps me to learn. I also got to use my new headset. Wonderful!
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Thursday, September 28th, 2006
Today lesson was devoted to staying on the ground, having coffee and discussing some very important ground material. Yigal and I talk quite a bit in the plane when I am practicing, but the airplane in no way a classroom. You must take time to go over things that are going to be on the written test.
We went to Rick’s Runway Cafe with a VFR Sectional Chart that covers some of New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. We also brought a plotter and a flight computer. For a good hour, we went over classes of airspace. This is pretty straightforward when talking about class A, B, C and D, but gets a little tricky when talking about class E and G. I got the concept, but need a lot more reading to get a firm grasp on it. We also went over how to use the plotter and the flight computer. The plotter is used to determine your heading (direction) and the flight computer is used for a few things. We went over how it is used to help you determine your actual heading, compensating for wind. Here is an example: say you want to fly directly east for 100 miles. Say there is a wind coming from the south at 25kts. If you take off and head directly east and continue on that heading, you are going to land east, but quite a bit more north than expected, due to the wind carrying you in that direction. The flight computer computes your heading, speed and wind speed, to give you the proper heading to fly. With this knowledge, you will “crab” (point the airplane south east, but remain flying directly east) the airplane the entire trip. Think about crossing a flowing river. If you get in a boat and head directly across, the current will bring you down stream. If your goal is to get straight across the river, you will need to point the boat up stream to compensate for the current.
For the next hour, we reviewed what I am doing in my Sporty’s Ground School. I gave him some topics I had covered and he quizzed me on them and offered some clarification on any questions I had.
I have to say, the DVDs and reading are very helpful, but nothing really beats face to face back and forth.
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Thursday, September 28th, 2006
Thanks to a special someone out there, I received the David Clark headset I wanted for my birthday.
This headset if very comfortable, is backed up by a top notch company and has a five year warranty. I have heard that their customer service is great. If you have a problem after five years has passed, they will most likely fix the issue for free. Also, Yigal, my flight instructor uses them, so I trust them. THANK YOU!
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Friday, September 22nd, 2006
This lesson was scheduled after work, because I used up my days off for the year. Good thing they renew tomorrow. I am going to start taking half days, so I can take my lessons at about 1PM. I think that would be the best time to fly. Mornings are good too because a nice lesson wakes me up.
I am a little razzled after work, so I needed to relax a little before getting in the plane. I needed to get in the zone. I was sitting on Freedom Air’s couch chillen like a villain when Yigal walked in. He was wondering why I wasn’t doing to pre-flight. Ok, getting in the zone…over.
I did the pre-flight and we taxied to runway 26, which threw me for a loop. It’s amazing how used to one runway and one pattern you become in such a short time. The wind was different today, so we had to mix things up. I learned that this was a right pattern runway as compared to runway 3’s left pattern. That threw me for a loop too.
Ok, taxiing done. Run-up done. Radio calls done. Takeoff number one was smooth. This lesson was to go over touch and goes again. Incidentally, touch and goes are a little taxing on the brain. There is a lot to do in a very short time. The pattern is not that far of a distance and there is not much altitude to play with. I made it a point today to use more of the rudder and to start using the horizon as a guide more than the instruments. This works much better and gets me more used to flying the plane like I am supposed to. Imagine driving a car with your nose stuck in the speedometer, gas gauge and turn signals. Not going to work well.
There were about 2-3 planes in the pattern today. There was a really nice Columbia up there with us. I found the new plane I want. This sucker cruises at 190MPH. There was another plane that came into the pattern later on from the left instead of the right. His radio call that he was entering the pattern on at a 45 concerned us a bit…because if that radio call was correct, he would be coming straight at us. Yigal took over at that moment and tried to find out where he was. We couldn’t find him at all. Apparently, since he thought it was a left pattern, he was all the way over on the other side of the runway. No wonder he was no where to be found. That’s why I like having a good instructor…it’s second nature for him.
Since there was a faster plane up there with us practicing touch and goes as well, we had to practice some slow flight waiting for him to do his thing. I am not a fan of slow flight…it’s ok, but you really have to keep your eye on the airplane’s pitch and speed. Too much pitch or too slow of a speed, the plane can stall and you will need to immediately recover. It keeps you extremely alert. We also practiced “crabbing” the airplane due to some wind coming from the North.
We made 4 landings and on our last one, Yigal asked if I remembered what to do if I lost the engine. I said I did. Of course his next move was to pull the throttle to idle. He said, “Land it.” I completed the proper steps and started my final approach. It is very difficult to maneuver in slow flight…so I had some difficulty. I pulled up the last click of flaps and slowed the plane down too much. Ok, that would’ve been a landing in the grass. Another note to self: keep your speed until you absolutely know you will make the runway. Yigal gave the airplane some throttle so we were further down the runway and I landed the plane.
I have to say, using the rudder more liberally improves my landings by giving me more maneuverability. Also, using the horizon as a guide lets me focus more on flying the airplane more comfortably. It feels like I “own” it more.
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Wednesday, September 13th, 2006
I gave Freedom Air a call yesterday morning to see if they had anything available for that afternoon because it looked like rain today. I have a habit of calling last minute. I found out that they were booked. That was fine, the rain looked like it was towards the afternoon anyway.
I arrived at about 7:50 today to give the plane a preflight inspection. This would save some $$$ if I got this done early when the clock wasn’t running. Unfortunately, the plane was in the hangar and I didn’t have the key. Oh well, I took some photos like I said I would in a previous post.
This is a sea plane, as you can see from the upper propeller in back of the pilot.
This plane had “Experimental” written on the side of it, so I thought it deserved a photo. I have no idea was type of experiment they will perform with it.
The next one is a Cessna (the most popular small plane out there) and the last is the flight school across the way. If you look past the hangar, you can see runway 3.
Yigal arrived after me and we talked a little about the weather. I was concerned about the very light drizzle coming down and he said that wasn’t a problem, we could fly in the rain if need be. It was visibility that mattered.
He had me call the weather service again for a standard briefing. I was secretly apprehensive about making this call because the first time I called the service, a real jerk gave me a hard time. This time, Yigal told me not to let them get the best of me and had me put the call on speakerphone.
The operator came on and was a different guy than last time, or the same guy, just beat up a little bit from his supervisor. He was very, very helpful. I gave him the airplane tail number and the airport we would be taking off from. I told him the duration of flight time and he gave me a complete rundown of everything I could possibly want to know. He also gave his opinion based on his experience, which was nice. We had good visibility, so it was cool to fly. What a pleasure talking to him.
I gave the plane a preflight in the hangar and we pulled it out. We got in and taxied to the runway. Today, I was going to do touch and goes for about an hour and a half. This should be interesting. Landing an airplane is the toughest thing to do.
Basically, here is what we did. I took off and climbed to an altitude of 1000 FT. Then, I made a radio call: “Orange County, Cherokee turning crosswind at runway 3.” Then, I continued to climb, while making a left turn to1400 FT. When I hit 1400 FT, I lowered the throttle so the engine was running at 2000 RPM (cruising speed). Then, when I was about a mile out from the runway, I made another radio call: “Orange County, Cherokee turning downwind at runway 3.” We paralleled the runway until we passed the very end (where we begun our takeoff) of it, then, I raised the flaps one click. We continued past the beginning of the runway for about one more mile. Then, I made a radio call: “Orange County, Cherokee turning base at runway 3.” This is where I made the most mistakes. At this point, I had to make another left turn, lower the RPMs to 1700, raise the flaps one more click and begin our descent to about 900 FT. It took me a while to get this. It seems like the plane wants to climb when I should be descending and vice versa. When we were lined up with the runway, I made one last radio call: “Orange County, Cherokee turning final for runway 3.” There were about 3 other training planes up in the same airspace this moring, so there was a lot of chatter. I talked over one guy once or twice…I’ll have to correct that for next time. Note to self: Listen for open air before making a radio call.
So, at this point we were heading straight for the runway. I would line my angle of descent up with the lights on the runway (VIZI Lights?). When I was too high, both lights would be white (and I’ll fly all night), too low, both lights would be red (and I’ll be dead…a little saying pilots use to remember the lighting sequence), just right, the rear light would be red and the front one would be white. As we got closer to our touchdown spot, I would flare the plane slightly. Basically, I would let the plane fall, give it a slight flare, let it fall, and give it a slight flare. When we almost touched down, I would give it another flare to land the plane. Too many flares and you slow the plane too much and it begins to fall too fast for a hard landing.
It took a few times to get the entire takeoff and landing pattern down pat with no mistakes. I took off and landed 5 times and had two very good landings. The second landing was very iffy, as I over-corrected with the rudder to land kind of crooked.
Yigal says that I am doing excellent for a student with only slightly over 4 hours. Next step, continue with my ground school, start looking into my own headset and prepare for my next lesson, Thursday of next week at 5:30PM.
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Friday, September 8th, 2006
There are two distinct sides to me…one that is aggressive and uptight (my teenage years) and one that is laid back and relaxed…just along for the ride. This is how I have trained myself to be over the years. I couldn’t continue to be uptight my whole life.
Well, with learning to fly, you can’t be laid back. Yigal acts more laid back than me, perhaps because he has over 4000 hours under his belt. This guy is good. He has the ability to look around and enjoy the scenery. One thing I really like about him is the way he periodically pulls my nose away from the instruments to look at the horizon or the colors of the trees (there are a few of them changing right now). He likes to remind me why I am doing this…for the fun and beauty.
Today we took up a Piper Cherokee. This is the same plane as last time. Smaller but pretty powerful because the engine has had some work done to it. It has had some exhaust work done and hemi-spherical (Hemi) pistons put in. The “Hemi” creates more compression, thus a more powerful piston stroke. I couldn’t grab any photos today, because there were people there already and we were ready to get going.
I am getting pretty used to doing the preflight inspection, taxiing to the runway and taking off. This time we had to fill the plane with fuel first. We did this and headed for the runway. I got off the ground at 65MPH and climbed at 85MPH. In order to gain speed during the climb, I pitched the nose down (like rolling down a hill in a car) and in order to slow down, I pitched the nose up with the elevator. Of course, we take off at full power. We climbed to 3000ft and banked 30 degrees to the left to fly crosswind of the airport and then banked again to fly downwind. We were practicing patterns and turns during ascending flight. This is really tricky, as I found out. First of all, I had to focus on my climb speed, then I had to focus on my bank degree, then I had to focus on my heading, all the while making sure that there was no traffic in the air. Focusing on 3-4 things simultaneously is tricky to say the least. Some of the things are opposite of what I am used to in a car, but it does get easier every time. Here is a photo of the airport from where we practice. Basically, if you are driving on Interstate 84 in New York, we practice in between the Mongomery exit and the Newburgh exit.
We practiced more maneuvering during slow flight, practice area operations, cockpit management, constant airspeed climbs, constant airspeed descents, airspeed transitions, turns to headings (of which I need work. I really need to get the heading indicator down) and flight at low cruise airspeeds. The real push of this lesson was Emergency Operations and landings. Yigal showed me what to do if you lose power in the plane. The first time you go over this, you feel very rushed, because you think there really is no time, but trust me, there really is time, especially if you are above 3000FT, like you most likely will be.
The first thing you do if you lose engine power is to control the airplane. You change your pitch for optimum glide speed of 75MPH. Then, you look for a field to land in and start heading in that direction…seriously. Once you have these two things squared away, and you are gliding and heading towards your destination, you begin checking the flight controls from right to left. You start with turning on the carburetor heat. You may have ice buildup if it is warm and humid. Then, you check your fuel mixture to make sure it is rich or lean. If you are coming down from a high altitude, your mixture is lean and you need to compensate on your descent and make it richer. Without doing this, you are starving the airplane for fuel. Then you need to pump your throttle to see if the plane isn’t getting fuel for some reason. After that, you check your key to make sure it is in and on and last you change your fuel tank. Maybe one tank ran out of fuel and you need to switch to another. This took me some time to cover, but Yigal assures me that it will be instinct by the time I am ready to fly solo.
We assumed that nothing worked and the engine could not be brought back. So with this in mind, we needed to land the plane. We headed towards the airport, using my new skills of descending the plane while turning to a specific heading. I did have a number of questions while doing this and Yigal had no problem being patient and answering the questions for me. Usually I feel stupid asking people questions because most people have an uncanny knack for belittling others. A sign of a good flight instructor is one who continues to encourage with patience and skill.
We followed the airport pattern for our approach to landing. This was my show, with Yigal’s hands at the ready. He walked me through step by step for a relatively smooth landing. Immediately after landing, we gave the plane full power for another take off, called a touch-and-go. I climbed to altitude and followed the pattern to simulate another engine failure from 3000FT. I flew the crosswind leg, then the downwind leg, then the base leg and then the final approach. This time I came in semi-smoothly and landed the plane myself.
We made a turn and taxied back to the runway for another takeoff. I did the same pattern and this time made my best landing so far. It’s a great experience being able to make a good takeoff and a good landing!
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Friday, September 1st, 2006
Ah yes, 8:00AM. It is September 1st and it is getting a little chilly around here. I am starting to wear sweatshirts in the morning. When I go sit on the couch to drink my morning coffee, I now have to wear a shirt. I guess it’s ok. Better than sweating. Laura doesn’t seem to have a problem with it, she HATES the heat.
Of course, I arrived at the flight school first again. I have a problem doing that. Perhaps it is because I can’t sleep at night, tossing and turning, thinking I am going to miss the alarm and screw up the whole lesson. You have to take them when you can these days due to all the rain we have been getting.
Anyway, Yigal arrived a little later than I did. He had me go out and do the pre-flight inspection. He chose a different plane this time…a little older and smaller, but just as powerful as the last. I believe this one was made in 1969. I did the inspection and suggested that we fill the tanks with fuel. They were below the markers. Also, when I took the sample of fuel from the left wing, a little water came out in the fuel. Yigal says this is due to the condensation created overnight. No big deal. I threw the fuel downwind.
I went back inside and Yigal had me call the weather service to get the current conditions as well as the forecast for the day. A pilot should always do this whenever they plan to fly. You always want to be sure that conditions are going to be ok from where you takoff from, your path and your landing area. Of course, this day, we tookoff from Orange County Airport and landed there too. A little note about this type of weather service – they throw out a whole mess of numbers. There is no handsome man in a suit in front of a large, easy to read map. I called the number he gave me: 1-800-WX-BRIEF. Here is what I had to do: introduce myself as a student pilot, give the tail number, tell the person that we were taking off from MGJ and landing there as well, let them know that we are staying in the area as well as our flight duration. Then, I had to request a standard briefing. I also had to ask if there were any TFRs (Temporary Flight Restrictions). I was looking for the ceiling hieght, visibility, the forecast and the wind direction and speed. Basically anything that we should be concerned about while in a small aircraft. Well, I screwed that all up. The operator on the other end of the phone was completely rude and had no patience. He totally unnerved me when he started sarcastically sighing. At one point he asked very slowly if I was writing this down. I felt like I was getting pretty ticked at him, but because of my point in learning, I was in no place to say anything. The reason he was getting frustrated was because I kept asking him to repeat things. I really don’t think these were big requests, since I did introduce myself as a new student pilot. I thanked him and hung up. Yigal asked me how it went and I told him some of the information I received. I also told him that the person was very rude and indicated what his attitude was. Yigal shot up and got quite serious. He immediately picked up the phone and called the operator back and asked for his supervisor. He made an aggressive complaint about the poor attitude of the operator and how new students have a difficult enough time learning all of this without having to deal with people like that. I really appreciated this from Yigal, as he showed he cared about my learning process.
We went out tho the plane and got inside. We went over all the things we needed to and I started her up. One thing that I forgot was to wipe the windshield down. There was dew all over it from the night before. No problem…parking brake and engine at 2000 RPM. No more dew. I lowered the throttle back to 800 RPM and taxied to the runway and went through the pre-takeoff checklist. I pulled out to the runway and tookoff. This all went much faster than last time and I was much more comfortable. I also made all radio communications. When we were at our altitude, I practiced straight and level flight and the use of trim, pitch and power coordination, traffic pattern operations, collision avoidance, power-off stalls, power-on stalls and approach and landing. Yigal let me land half-way. His hands were on the controls, but so were mine. It felt pretty comfortable. I think I will ready to give it a shot by myself next time.
A note about airplane stalls – I really thought this area was going to freak me out. Basically, you are simulating a stall while taking off and landing. One is with full power (takeoff) and one with no power (landing). To simulate this, you climb to 3000ft. and lower the flaps. Then you pitch the airplane past 18 degrees, the point of stall. The airplane shudders and falls. The trick is to regain control with minimal altitude loss. Yigal demonstrated the power off stall first and then had me do it axactly to the way the examiner is going to want to see it. It really wasn’t that bad. I kind of liked it. We did the power on stall next…that was a little more dramatic because we really had to pull up all the way to get the plane to stall. We were at a higher speed as well. The studdering is more profound, but recovery is easier. It is a great feeling to practice these skills because they really make you more comfortable with the plane. Once that happens, flying becomes easier and more fun.
I really like these lessons and I am thrilled that I got into this.
Next lesson, Sept. 8, 8:00AM.
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